By Sarah Noble
The first year of motherhood is a rollercoaster.
It’s hard.
Harder than I expected.
In fact, I don’t even now what I expected, because the focus is on what to get for baby, birth, being pregnant, finances – everything else but the actual day-to-day reality of how to keep a baby alive.
You are healing physically and learning to love your new body.
You are adjusting mentally and emotionally to your new life, amongst the chaos of hormones.
You are bombarded with advice, judgement, comparison, opinions.
You are trying to survive sleep deprivation.
You are learning how to breastfeed, how to change nappies, how to understand your baby.
You are adjusting to not being very independent and social.
You are trying to figure out the new dynamics with your partner.
It’s a HUGE change overnight.
There’s a lot of unknown.
There’s a lot of expectations and beating yourself up for not meeting them.
There’s a lot of guilt, no matter which way you do things.
You question EVERYTHING.
Motherhood forces you to let go of trying to control everything.
To accept help and support.
It helps you understand who you REALLY are and get clear on your values.
It’s a messy liquid from all the holes filled, a rollercoaster of emotions.
It isn’t linear.
It’ll break you wide open, and put you back together piece by piece, with gold as glue.
There is no perfect.
There’s your best.
Your little human loves you unconditionally.
No matter what you or your house looks like.
No matter how sleep deprived and zombie Mum you are.
No matter how you choose to feed/settle/raise your cub.
That first year you’ll live 1000 lives in 365 days.
Let go.
Enjoy the ride.
There is no perfect.
Your best is enough.
Sarah Noble is a Mindset and Mindfulness Speaker, Writer and Mentor, and an Accredited Mindfulness Teacher. She specialises in helping first-time Mums optimise their mental health, so they can navigate Motherhood with confidence and clarity. She lives in Dunedin with her partner and son, Dylan, who is 14 months old. She loves vegetables, rock music, nature, travel and swearing. You can find Sarah on Instagram and Facebook.
